Looking back before looking forward, part II
Last week’s Messenger was about three ideas that have informed Socratus’ work over the last three years: Collective Wisdom, Immersion and Ecosystems. In case you forgot to click on that link, here it is again:
This week’s Messenger is on three events that show those ideas in action. The first of the three events was a Wicked Sprint on Recasting the Fertilizer Subsidy in 2020, just after the first wave of the pandemic was receding.
Recasting the Fertilizer Subsidy
You might not know it, but the fertilizer subsidy is one of the largest expenses for the Indian exchequer. That subsidy used to be in the range 100,000 crores, but the war in Ukraine more than doubled it last year. And since it’s mostly for fossil fuel based fertilizers - urea in particular - it’s contribution to India’s carbon emissions is substantial. In other words: everything from food sufficiency to geopolitics and climate change are implicated in this one line item.
On Migration and Citizenship
The first wave of the pandemic saw an exodus of migrant labourers from cities mostly in Southern and Western India (plus the NCR) to their homes in UP, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand etc. Socratus organized it’s first citizen’s jury in July 2021 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, in response to these tragedies. The next two links are to Messenger editions that documented this event.
Citizenship and Ecosystems
Continuing with Citizenship, but adding a layer of ecosystem thinking to it, is our series of engagements with SwitchON foundation on climate change and citizenship. You can read more about those here:
That’s it for the retrospective. Give us another week (or two at most) and we will be back with the Messenger 3.0.